Fence-machine



(ModeL) H, PARMER.

FENCE MAGHINE.

Patented Mar. 1, 1887.

Inventor Witnesses Attorney UNITED STATES PATENT ()rmcn.

HENRY FARMER, OF RICHMOND, INDIANA.

FENCE- MACHINE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 358,441, dated March 1, 1887.

Application filed February 26, 1886. Serial No. 193,277. (Model) To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HENRY FARMER, of

Richmond, Wayne county, Indiana, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Fence-Machines, of which the following is a specification.

This invention pertains to that class of portas will be understood from the following description, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure 1 is a side view of my machine, a portion of completed fence being shown; Fig. 2, a front elevation of the same with certain partsremoved; Fig. 3, a perspective front view of a portion of the machine, showing one of the twisting-wheels with its accessory parts; Fig. 4., a front view of one of the twistingwheels, the removable core being omitted, but its position indicated by dotted lines; Fig. 5, a perspective view of one of the removable cores of the twisting-wheels; Figs. 6 and 7, front views of the clamps which graspthc wire in front of the twisters, and Fig. 8 a horizontal section plan of the machine in connection with a portion of fence under construction. Fig. 9 is a sectional view of part of one of the twisting-wheels, showing the core in place.

My invention has to do only with parts connected with the twister-post, and therefore no description will be given of other part ssuch as anchors, reels, &c.-which may be as usual.

There is, as usual, a movable twister post provided with a vertical series of twisters, one twister for each strand of wire. The wires pass axially through the twister-wheels, which have removable notched cores engaging the wires. In front of each twister is a clamping device, which, when the twister-post is moved up toward the newlyinserted picket, is caused to press the wires sidewise and forwardly closely against the newly-inserted picket, so as to cause the new picket to be held by the wires disposed squarely acrossit, instead of obliquely, as usual. In Fig. 2 the upper twister has its wire-clamp in the closedposition. Thetwister next below the upper one has the clamp in its open position. The next lower twister has the clamps entirely removed, so as to expose the core of the twisting-wheel, and the lowest twister has the clamps removed, and also has the core of thetwister removed. The twisters are carried in bearings clamped to the twisterpost, the twister-post being formed of two parallel pieces of flat bar-iron. The twisters are driven in a usual manner by crank and chain.

The crank may be arranged upon the righthand side of the twister-post, as indicated in Fig. 2, or upon the left-hand side, as indicated in Fig. 1.

In the drawings, A indicates the twisterpost, the same being formed with two parallel sides of flat bar-iron; B, a foot-piece pivoted at the base of the twister-post and provided with a segmental slot; 0, rollers journaled to the foot-piece, one at each end, the axes of the rollers being at right angles to the axes of the twisters, the rollers serving to permit the twister-post to be easily moved in the line of the fence; D, the pivot by which the foot-piece is secured to the base of the twister-post; E, the clamp secured to the twister-post and engaging the segment of the foot-piece, and serving to rigidly unite the two after the twisterpost has been adjusted in the desired vertical or angular position, the clamp being shown in the illustration as consisting of a screw engaging the post and the slot of the segment; F, pairs of plates clamped to the front and rear of the twister-post to furnish bearings for the twisting-wheels and supports for the clamping devices, there being one pair of these bearing-plates for each twisting-wheel; G, twisting-- wheels disposed between the bearing-plates and having their hubs bearing therein, the twisting-wheels in this instance being shown as arranged to be simultaneously driven by sprocket-chain operated by hand-crank; H, the open bores of the twisting-wheels, extending entirely through the hubs of the wheels; J, cores removably inserted in the hubs of the twisting-wheels; K, grooves in the cores, arranged parallel to the axes of the twistingwheels and adapted to receive the wires; L, notches in the sides of the bores of the twisting-wheels, adapted to receive the edges of the removable cores; M, clamps hinged in front of each twister, these clamps being in the form of plates whose outer ends are hinged to the front bearing-plates, and whose inner ends pass each other and are slotted, so as to form a collapsible slotted shield in front of each twister; N, a horizontal slot in one end of one clamping-plate of each pair of clamps, the slot being of sufficient width to permit of the free play of the wires, and at the same time maintain the wires against vertical displacement; O, the ends of the slot-work of the clamping-plates, the same being adapted to engage sidewise with the wires as the clamps close; I, a mortise in the free end of one clamping-plate of each pair, this mortise being of a size to permit the passage through it of the reduced free end of the other clamping-plate of the pair; Q, inwardly-facing heads upon the free ends of the clamping-plates which pass through the mortise-plates; R, a gap in the free end of each of the mortised clampingplates; S, hinge-pivots formed at the outer ends of the clamping-plates; T, pivot-bearings engaging the hinged pivots of the clampingplates and bolted to the face of the bearingplates; U, a track-board provided upon its upper surface with an upwardly-open groove, which groove is also open at its ends, the groove being adapted to receive the rollers O; and V, notches at the end corners of the removable core, the same forming a reduction in width at the end of the core sufficient to permit the end of the core to enter a bearingplate of a twister-wheel, whereby the end of the core is permitted to project through the bearing-plate flush with the hub of the twisterwheel.

The clamp-screw E may be loosened, and the twister-post may then be tipped upon the footpiece and again secured at any angle, by which means the twister-post may be retained in a vertical position, while the foot-piece is at an angle to conform to inclinations of groundsurface.

There are as many twisting-wheels, with their bearing-plates, &c., as there are to be strands in the fence. The bearing-plates being clamped to the twister-post to permit of ready adjustment vertically thereon, the relative positions of the strands of the fence may thus be adjusted as desired, and a greater or less number of twists are readily applied, as desired, to the twister-post. \Vhen the cores are in the twisting-wheels, the hubs of the twisting-wheels become thereby provided with grooves extending therethrough parallel with the other axis, precisely as though the twisting-wheels had slotted hubs provided with a pair of parallel wire-passages. The cores are separably inserted in the twister-wheels, and the ends of the cores are narrowed or shouldered to fit the bearings of the twister-wheels.

The cores maybe removed from the twisterwheels when desired, and replaced by others having wire-grooves tapered or larger, or otherwise modified to suit new sizes of wire or new thickness of picket.

The clamps M present themselves as shields in front of the twisters, and after anew picket is inserted in the strands the twister-post is pushed toward that picket until the clamps engage the picket and force it snugly to its place against the preceding twists. At the same time the two wires which go tomake up each strand are maintained in a horizontal position transversely by the slots N of the clamps, and consequently when the twisting begins the wires will be prevented from being thrown obliquely across the picket. The clampingplates, by reason of their crossing each other, as shown in Fig. 3, present a V-shaped front against the new picket, and thus tend to clasp and hold the picket sidewisc, and at the same time the picket tends to widen the V-shaped front end of the clamps. The effect of this widening or rear closing of the clamps is to bring the abntments O of the clamps forcibly against the sides of the wire, and therefore to compress the wires firmly and snugly against the sides of the picket previous to the starting of the new twists. In the construction shown the clamping-plates of a pair are arranged to pass each other by means of the reduced free extremity of one plate passing through the mortise of the other plate, the gap R of the mortise-plate permitting the intermembering of the plates, and the head Q, of the interior plate serving to prevent the improper separation of the plates.

The clamp plates are articulated to the twister-post by means of the hinge-bearings which engage the hinge-pivots of the clampplates, and which are bolted against the front bearing-plates, and which support the twisting-wheels. The longitudinal track-board U is laid upon the ground to serve as a supporting-track for the twister-post, the wheels of the base-piece running in the groove of the board. By this means a fairly smooth track is provided for the twister-post, and at the same time the twister-post is prevented from twisting upon a vertical axis, and thus getting out of line with the fence being constructed. There may be two of these track-boards to be laid in succession endwise,whereby a continuous portable track is furnished. The groove in the track-board is open both at its top and ends. The twister-post can be readily set into or removed from this guide-groove, and can travel off of the board onto the ground or onto a successive board. It is highly important that the twister-post should be capable of being readily disengaged from the board by a vertical motion, as by being lifted upward, or by a traveling motion, as by being moved along off of the board. The board thus furnishes a convenient guide for the motion of the twister-post without restricting the travel of the post and without necessitating the constant lifting of the board with the twister-post as the machine is moved from place to place.

I claim as my invention--- 1. In a fence-machine, the combination of a vertical twister-post provided with wire-twisting mechanism, a foot-piece pivoted at its center to the base of said twister-post and provided with a segment concentric with its pivot, rollers journaled one at each extremity of the foot-piece, and a clamp engaging the twisterpost and the segment of the foot-piece, substantially as set forth.

2. In afence-machine, the combination of a twister wheel with an open bore and a removable core provided with two parallel wireengaging grooves, substantially as set forth.

3. In a fence-machine, the combination of a twister-post provided with a vertical series of twisters, a pair of articulated wire-clamps in front of each twister, presenting a V-shaped front to the picket, and a frontal slot for the passage of the wires and arranged to shorten the slot and compress the wires sidewise when the twister-post is pressed toward the picket, substantially as set forth.

4. In a fence-machine, the combination of a twister-post provided with a series of twisters, a pair of slotted clamp-plates, M, hinged to the twister-post in front of each twister, one clampplate of each pair having mortise P, the other clamp-plate of each pair having a reduced end adapted to engage such mortise, and provided with a head, Q, substantially as set forth.

5. In a fence-machine, the combination of a twister-post provided with a series of twisters, hinge-bearings T, secured to the twister-post at the sides of the twisters, and intermember- 3o ing slotted clamp-plates M, articulated-to the hinge-bearings, substantially as set forth.

6. In a fence-machine, the combination of a twister-post provided with a series of twisters, and with one or more rollers at its foot, and a 3 5 guide-board provided with a groove arranged to lie upon the ground below the said twisterpost andbe engaged by the roller or rollers of the twister-post, and thereby serve as a side guide therefor, the roller or rollers of the 40 twister-post being adapted for ready engagement with and disengagement from the groove of said traok-board, substantially as set forth.-

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presenoe'of two witnesses.

HENRY FARMER.

WVitnesses: Y

J AS. W. NIoHoLs, \V. T. DENNIS. 

